Jump Start # 1713

Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Our verse today was the message that the church at Smyrna received. From Heaven’s perspective, it wasn’t bad. Some would suffer a short time. It will be over. The victory belongs to the Lord. However, from our side of things, it looks very dark. Cast into prison, by Satan! You WILL have tribulation. You WILL be tested. Be faithful until DEATH. Those are all scary words.

There are some lessons for us from these words to Smyrna.

First, God was aware of these things. This message didn’t come from the enemy. This wasn’t ISIS taunting God’s people or making death threats. These words came from Heaven. God knew.

Second, God was going to allow this to happen. He wasn’t sending angels to thwart what was coming. He wasn’t going to gather His people up into a safe house. The storm was coming and God was going to allow it.

Third, it would be hard. Tribulation. Prison. Testing. Death. Those are not nice words. God who watched His Son suffer and die, would allow this suffering upon the Christians at Smyrna.

Fourth, God was in charge. The suffering was limited, ten days. The suffering would end. This would not crush nor destroy the Kingdom. The outcome was a victory crown. God was going to grant His people a crown. It was a crown of life, not of death. The crown wasn’t worn by the enemy, but God’s suffering saints.

We sometimes have a hard time understanding why there are hard times. We’d like to have a Heaven like utopia on earth. We’d like it for the storms to skip over our homes. We’d like it for diseases to miss us. Suffering saints is something that is hard to grasp. As parents, we’ve tried to protect our children from injury. We tried to shelter them from harm. We run to them when they cry and are upset. We try to make every moment filled with joy and happiness. That may work well with two-year olds, but as the kids grow, parents realize that they can’t shelter their kids from disappointments. Broken hearts from failed romances, disappointments because they didn’t make the team, upset because some friends were not really friends, and then the homework and the tests and the quizzes. The laughter and smiles disappear because of study and work. But as parents we know that this is good and right. You can’t be forty years old and play all day, every day. That’s not good for a person nor society. Life has bumps and bruises. Our pets die. Tears are a part of life. We learn things in suffering and sadness that we never see in joy and happiness.

God’s people have always been those who suffered and endured.

• In Egypt, it was the cries of Israel that reached Heaven.
• During the Judges, the pleas for deliverance from oppressing nations, led God to send deliverers.
• There was the Babylonian days.
• There were the Romans
• John the Baptist was behead
• James, the apostle, was executed
• Jeremiah was thrown into a well
• Peter was imprisoned
• Paul was beaten with rods
• Jesus was nailed to the cross

Yet, the fact that we suffer is not an indication that God is not in charge. Nor, does it mean that He does not love us. Suffering from Heaven’s perspective toughens us. It makes us rely upon God. It helps us to see what is really valuable in life. It brings us closer to Him.

We see the value of pain when we consider a surgery. Sure it will hurt. It won’t last long. And, in the end, the person will be better. Without the surgery, things would be a lot worse. Is spiritual suffering any different? Sure it hurts. It won’t last long. And, in the end, the person will be better. That’s how God sees it.

So, there may be some who ignore you because of your faith. There may be some who say unkind things to others about you. There may be some who try to get you fired because of your faith. We walk with the Savior. This won’t be long. There is a crown awaiting those who keep walking with the Lord.

We need reminders like this. Some days can be tough for some of us. Family and friends can turn. The world can get really dark. We may think God has forgotten us. He hasn’t. Believe.

There is a crown for you. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Be faithful to the very end.

Roger

Jump Start # 788

Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

This week we are taking a look at some of the things God expects from His people. We understand that when we live by these principles, God is pleased. We are doing what He wants us to. When we don’t, He is disappointed and usually, it results in us getting into problems, sins and situations that hurt us. God knows what He is talking about. Yesterday, we saw that God wants us to be strong.

Today, God wants us to be faithful to Him. Our passage comes from the dark days of persecution. The news wasn’t pleasant. The writer didn’t sugar coat things and tell them, “everything will be fine, I just know it.” Instead, you are going to suffer. You are going to be imprisoned by Satan. You will be tested. You will have tribulation. The road ahead is tough. Be faithful. Be faithful even if it takes your life. The “until death” is not old age in an nursing home, but a sword stuck under your throat demanding that you denounce Jesus Christ. Be faithful. Be faithful, even if it means you die!

The idea of faithfulness means being true or staying with it. We use the concept of faithfulness in marriage to describe one who has stayed true to his vows, especially morally. With God, it is the idea of staying with Him. Staying committed to what we started. Finishing.

It’s easy to start things. Most of us do. Staying with it is what is hard. It’s easy to start projects, to start back to school, to start a diet, to start a budget, to start a plan to read the Bible. We do those things all the time. It’s the “staying with it” that trips most of us. Things come up. We get sidetracked and off schedule and then it’s hard to get started again. The kids get sick in the middle of the night and that throws us off our plans in the morning. An emergency comes up and that crashes the budget. We stay up too late watching a ballgame and are too sleepy in the morning to do our reading.

Faithfulness with God involves more than a reading plan for the Bible. It involves keeping the principles of God throughout all of our life. Remaining holy, generous, thankful, obedient and keeping a heart of praise to God.

I find that the difficulty in these things is the length of our journey. It is a lifetime. Being what we should isn’t too much on a Sunday. A week, no problem. A month, gets a bit harder. But the journey continues on and so does life. We get sidetracked and tempted and things come up and we find ourselves not as strong, not as devoted, not as serious as we ought to be.

I also find that during difficult times, it is easier to be committed to God. That may be because the need for God is before us. A loved one hanging on in the hospital pulls our hearts to pray and pray hard and constantly. A prodigal child, the loss of a job, a marriage falling apart—all of these are tough times, but they seem to bring out the best in us. We realize that we need help. We embrace God tightly.

It is the plain, everyday days that tend to lessen our faithfulness. Nothing grand. Nothing trying. Nothing hard. Getting up and heading to work. Getting the kidos ready for school. Another church service. Another Bible class. Another meal at home. Just another day. It’s easy to be less intense during those days. It’s easy to be a bit lazy spiritually on those days. It’s easy to not see the importance during those days. It happens. We slide through a day without even talking to God. We allow days to pass without opening the Bible. We haven’t given up. We aren’t ready to walk away. It’s just our schedules. It’s that we are tired. It’s just life. We look back and we realize that an entire day has passed and I lived as if God didn’t even exist. No thought of Him. No prayers to Him. No thankfulness expressed. During those times it easy to let the guard down. Maybe gossiped when I shouldn’t have. Maybe I told a couple of lies. Just not being careful with the spiritual walk.

Be faithful. That’s the charge. That’s the call upon us. Be faithful—when it is hard. Be faithful  -when it’s easy. Be faithful, when Satan knocks on the door of your heart. Be faithful, when others are not. Be faithful, when it hurts. Be faithful, when out of town. Be faithful, when having to work late. Be faithful. Be faithful, even to death.

God wants you to be faithful. If you are young, be faithful. If you are old, be faithful. If you were once faithful, continue. If you stopped, start being faithful again. If you stumbled, pick yourself up and get faithful again.

Being faithful means that God can count upon you. Being faithful makes a difference to those around you. Anyone can be a fair weather Christian. It’s easy being a Christian in the church house on Sunday morning. How about in the school house? The court house? The gym? The work place? Be faithful.

How are you doing with this? Can God count on you? Can He count on you today? Faithful. Faithful when doing your taxes! OUCH. Faithful when selling things! OUCH. Faithful when someone asks you tough things. God is counting on you…be faithful.

Roger

Jump Start # 374

Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

  Our passage for today is found in the introductory section of Revelation where a personal message is addressed to each of the seven churches. The context of our verse is about the church at Smyrna. The Lord knew what was going on there, as He does in all churches. They were suffering. Unlike most of the other churches, the address concerns what is coming. It is not so much a warning, so they could avoid it, but rather an encouragement to remain true. 

  What is alarming to us as we read passages like this, is the notice of coming trouble. This is found many times in the N.T. Peter warned about the fiery trial and the suffering that the Christians would endure. We operate with the premise that when alarms go off, take cover. When severe storms are in the area and the weather folks are telling us to take cover, tornado sirens sound, we head to basements. We don’t stay and endure, we run. That’s the way we think.

  Here, God was telling this church in advance, that trouble was coming. Some would be thrown into prison and they would suffer. Fleeing wasn’t an option. They were to remain, endure and be faithful, even to the point of death. This passage is often presented with the idea of someone being a Christian until he dies in his nineties of old age. That’s not the thought here. God knew some would be put to death. He told them this was coming. He allowed it to happen. Now that thought is even more puzzling to us. As parents, we try to shelter our children from trouble. You can imagine all the prayers these saints were offering to God for help, for relief, for safety, for deliverance. In God’s plan of things, He allowed His people to suffer.

  This has been a theme throughout the Bible. God’s people have suffered. They did in Egypt before God delivered them. The story of the three Jewish boys and the fiery furnace, or Daniel in the lion’s den or Joseph and his pitiful brothers, or the mother’s whose babies were killed by Herod in the days of Jesus, or the death of John the Baptist, or the death of the apostle James, or even in this chapter of Revelation, “Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, was killed among you” – this is a constant theme in the pages of the Bible.

  We pray that God will remove us from the problem. We want isolation. God wants us to endure the problem. He insulates us. There is a difference. Trials and suffering has a way of making us sure what we believe. They have a way of making us stronger. Metal is placed in fire and then the blacksmith can hammer it into the shape he wants. God places us in the fire of trials so we can be shaped the way He wants.

  This is a difficult lesson to understand. It seems prayers are not answered. It seems God has abandon His people. It seems that all is wrong. It’s not. Behind the storms come sunny days once again. Trials affect us. They leave scars on us. They make us look upward and draw a strength that only God can provide.

  The suffering Savior understands. Let’s not forget what Jesus endured. He could have stopped it but He didn’t. There was a purpose. There was an end in sight. The suffering saint draws lessons from the suffering Savior. Peter tells us that He left us an example to follow.

  Be faithful until the end. Finish what you started. Don’t quit because the journey becomes difficult. Tough times is when faith really matters.

Roger